The Ghana Rugby Football Union (GRFU) and Harper Performance have agreed to a partnership aimed at developing the performance-support provisions available to the athletes playing for, and aspiring to play for Ghana Rugby.

Mr Herbert Mensah, President of Ghana Rugby, with Mr Tim Harper of Harper Performance after the agreement between the parties were concluded in the UK.

Ghana Rugby, established in 2003, is now a full member of both World Rugby and Rugby Africa and is currently experiencing unprecedented growth, popularity and interest in the country and in the world of rugby. The challenges facing the union are enormous but under the leadership of Herbert Mensah since 2014, the GRFU have successfully developed a ten team national league, resurrected women’s rugby and developed a sustainable youth development programme.

The partnership with Harper Performance is an important step in allowing Ghanaian rugby players to receive training and development in areas such as strength & conditioning, sports nutrition, sports medicine and athlete lifestyle advice from leading practitioners in the performance-support industry in a culturally relevant, logistically aware manner.

Herbert Mensah, President of the GRFU, said of the partnership; “We are excited with the endless stream of well wishes and offers of support that Ghana Rugby has been receiving since the announcement of its full membership in record time of World Rugby on 10 May this year.

The partnership with Harper Performance is but one of the outcomes from the reaction and we are very pleased to enter into this agreement. Ghana Rugby has performed exceptionally in many areas but the entering of the world stage of rugby will put enormous pressure on our ability to perform technically at high levels. This partnership with Harper Performance is a very important part of our recipe to do just that.”

“With all the blood, sweat and tears that have been poured into the development of the off-field administration of Ghana Rugby over the past few years, it’s important that those efforts are now matched on the training park, in the gym and on the pitch.

The multidisciplinary team at Harper Performance is excited to be bringing our expertise to the GRFU as we look to support the development of the ‘Ghanaian Way’ and achieving sporting and athletic excellence within the logistical and financial parameters that the union faces.”

Harper Performance is a performance-support consultancy working within high-performance sports such as football, rugby, athletics and motorsport. Apart from its for-profit activities, Harper Performance specialises in providing innovative, culturally relevant, financially sustainable, yet highly effective performance support systems to ‘underdog’ athletes and organisations, often hamstrung by logistical, economic and sociocultural barriers to performance.

Ghana Rugby will be in action later in 2017 when the team travels to Kampala, Uganda to compete in the Africa Men’s Sevens Tournament for the first time. This tournament is of great significance as it serves as the qualifier for the Sevens World Rugby Cup, the Commonwealth Games and the World Series repechage tournament in Hong Kong

The tournament provides excellent opportunities for multinationals to get good brand exposure as the tournament will include African countries from all over the continent, including Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Morocco, Senegal, Madagascar, Tunisia, Botswana, Zambia and Ghana.

Companies who decide to support Ghana Rugby in Mission Kampala can be assured that their brand will get wide continental and global exposure as the official broadcaster of Rugby Afrique, Kwesé ESPN, will be bringing the matches live to millions of homes.

About Ghana Rugby

Ghana Rugby is the official full member of both World Rugby and Rugby Afrique in Ghana-West Africa and is charged with the management and development of the game Rugby Union in the country.